Tuesday, November 12, 2024

ICABR Call for Abstracts: Circular Bioeconomy and Systems of Sustainability

Food production faces a host of interconnected challenges – water scarcity, resource depletion, deforestation, rising energy costs – are but a few of the factors that impact not only the amount of food produced, but also its price. Circular bioeconomies offer potential solutions through a systems approach to improve the sustainability of food production. However, producing more with less, requires significant innovation investments, efficient regulations and unrestricted trade. Improved sustainability requires a systems approach, where policy or regulatory changes in one phase of the innovation pipeline can adversely or beneficially impact other phases.

If feeding a growing global population was not challenging enough, it will have to be achieved through increasingly changing climates. Climate variability is increasing, with more erratic, localized conditions, including both droughts and floods. With changing climates occurring at more regional levels, solutions to mitigate the effects will also need to become increasingly regionally focused. This need highlights the importance of national and international research collaboration, such as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research network of institutions, as well as the contributions from public-private partnerships.

The 29th ICABR Conference is seeking submissions in regard to the following themes.

Conference Themes

1. Sustainable Agricultural Practices and Technological Bioeconomy Innovations

Increases in agricultural production will be required to quantify sustainability improvements, which may vary widely depending upon the market. Agronomic advances will be essential as will advances in technologies capable of measuring and confirming improvements. Not only will technology advances be important, but advances in the bioeconomy as well.

·         Sustainable Technologies: Innovations in sustainable farming techniques, balancing productivity with environmental stewardship

·         Technological Innovations in Agriculture: Role of precision agriculture, digital tools, AI, and machine learning

2. Climate Adaptation Strategies and Crop Management

Ensuring that at the very least, yields are maintained, but preferably increase as climates change will be crucial for ensuring food insecurity does not worsen in the coming decades. New plant breeding techniques, such as gene editing offer tremendous potential in dealing with the looming climate adversity.

·         Climate-Resilient Crop Varieties: Development and adoption of drought resistant, heat-tolerant crops, genetic modifications, and new breeding techniques

·         Impact of Climate Change on Pest and Disease Dynamics: Emerging pests and diseases due to climate shifts, integrated pest management strategies

3. Policy and Economic Impacts

For innovation to flourish and provide markets and economies with improved products and processes, regulations need to be risk appropriate. Policy and regulatory barriers will ultimately contribute to needlessly perpetuating food insecurity as well as limiting successful innovations from reaching the market more rapidly.

·         Policy and Governance for Climate-Smart Agriculture: Policy frameworks supporting climate adaptation and mitigation, role of governments, and international organizations

·         Economic Impacts and Market Dynamics: Economic implications of agricultural intensification, market responses to climate-induced agricultural changes

Important Dates

     November 15, 2024 – Abstract submission deadline (late submission will be considered until Nov 30th if spots are left open)

     November 30, 2024 – Notice of abstract acceptance

     April 30, 2025 – Submission of accepted papers

Types of Submissions for the Conference

Selected papers

Abstracts addressing the highlighted key themes are invited for submission. Abstracts should be up to 400 words in length and be structured. They must include the following headings:

a)    Context – describe the relevance of the subject matter and how it relates to the call for abstracts.

b)    Objectives – describe the objective or research focus of the paper.

c)     Methods – describe the method(s) utilized in the paper.

d)    Results – summarize the key results of the research.

e)    Implications – describe why are the findings important.

Case Studies

Case studies should assess a discrete technology, within a defined setting, providing for a robust assessment of the resulting impacts. Case study submissions should clearly outline what is being assessed, what the control is, the time frame and the data collection method.

Panel Proposals and/or Organized Sessions

Submissions need to identify the focus and objective of the panel or the session, as well as confirmed or proposed panelists/speakers. Submissions should identify what each panelist/speaker will be presenting. Abstracts of up to 400 words should be submitted, highlighting the objectives of the session and the importance of the information. Proposals that do not reflect a diversity of panelists will be rejected.

Posters

Submissions for poster only presentations can be submitted. Submissions do not need to be focused on a specific research paper, but may be broader, addressing an important issue of topic in line with the conference theme.

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